Her Horns
by Night Owl 93
Summary: Here lies the tale of how the young faery princess, Maleficent, became cursed with her famous black horns; adapted from Linda Woolverton's original script for "Maleficent"
1. Chapter 1

Her horns were not as heavy as they looked, not that they didn't have some weight to them. She liked the way the way they made her head bow back, craning her neck and lifting her chin. She held her head this way everywhere she went, wearing her black devil horns with pride. She would even decorate them with garments of beads and jewels, making them like a crown befitting a princess like her. When she strode past the other Fae creatures of the Moors with her great wings dragging behind her, the elves, the Wallerbogs, and the pixies, her golden eyes, glowing like hot embers, would look down upon them with her chin up, silently daring anybody to speak against her or her horns.

'_Yes, these are my horns,' _her eyes said, _'And I am not ashamed. For I am a devil indeed, and I show my devilhood with pride.'_

If any so much as thought ill of her, they would learn fisthand what a devil she really could be. With a flap of her wings, she could summon a gust to send them flying miles away, or with a wave of her hand, a dark cloud would appear above their heads to strike them with a bolt of lightning, sending them running to salve their burnt backsides.

Her horns were meant to be a curse, one inflicted by her dear aunt Ulla, and at first that's how she felt about them, but as she grew, she saw them as a gift, for the fear they helped her bring unto others gave her greater power than ever before. The same applied to her name: Maleficent, "the wicked one". Ever since her birth, which caused the death of her own mother, Ulla saw her as nothing but wicked, even though as a child she was anything but. She would spend her days soaring above the Moors with the river giants, mending injured trees, rescuing animals caught in human traps, feeding seeds and berries to Sprites, and such. Yet it seemed that no matter how good she behaved, her aunt would find some reason to berate her. Every time Ulla looked into her niece's face, she would see the fair pale beauty of her sister, who was no longer on this Earth, and in her eyes, the same fiery gold that belonged to her father, a creature all the Fae people despised.

It was in fact from an act of kindness that she gained her horns.

* * *

Maleficent was eight years old when her horns were given to her. It was a bright and sunny afternoon, and just like any other, she spent it gliding above the forest, traveling well past the borders of the Moors, even though she was forbidden to do so. She always was the little rebel. Once she was past the Southern edge of the forest, she came upon a hill that was dry and barren. At the top of the hill stood the ruins of a castle centuries old. Curious, she floated down to the ground to get a closer look. The roof and walls were all but gone, the once-gray bricks rotted and black and overgrown with nets of dead vines. She wished to breathe life back into the plants, but she could not bring herself to place her hands upon the dead stone. The cold lifelessness of the place chilled Maleficent to the core

"Caw!"

Her attention was turned towards the sound coming from behind her. In the distance, she could see what looked to be a bird flopping around on the ground just past the edge of trees. Maleficent opened her wings and glided down from the hilltop to see what was the matter. The bird was a tiny young crow, one barely out of his mother's nest. He limped about, flapping his right wing to try and fly, while its left dragged across the ground. She surmised he must have fallen from a branch and broken it.

"You poor thing," she cooed as she scooped the bird up into her hands, "Don't worry, I will take care of you."

Her hands then folded over the bird's body. Green magic glowed between her palms. When they opened, he was fixed good as new. He stood upright in her cupped hands and stretched his mended wings, now even stronger than ever, giving them a test flap. He looked up to Maleficent, sounded a thankful "Caw," and hopped off of her hand, gliding to the ground with his wings fluttering and landing with an awkward tumble. Maleficent giggled as he rose back onto his feet and shook his head.

"Heeheehee, silly little bird," she said. Then, "Farewell," and she took to the sky to return home. As she soared higher and higher, she came to realize that the silly little bird was following behind her, feverishly flapping his wings to try and reach her. She giggled again, realizing that he was still uneducated in flight.

"Don't flap so hard," she told him, "You'll only tire yourself. Just let the wind guide you. Your wings will know what to do."

To demonstrate, she glided down lower, then angled her wings so that they caught the breeze and lifted her back up, using a couple smooth yet firm flaps to send her higher. The crow followed suit, gliding down then up, gently flapping his small black wings. He cawed with delight and repeated. Maleficent smiled at his progress. She taught him some more, how to land properly then take flight again, how to turn one way then another, the proper time to open and close his wings, and so on. Every move she performed, he would mimic, until the two of them shared the sky, twisting and turning and flipping through the air in precise synchronization, oblivious to the yellow eyes observing them from the shadows.

"Impressive," a deep voice whispered, "Very impressive."

* * *

She soon returned to the Moorlands with her new avian friend in tow. Maleficent landed in the meadow by the pond where the water faeries skated across the water's surface, creating trails of rainbows where their feet touched, while the crow continued to hover in circles through the air, enjoying his newly honed skills of flight too much to want to stop. Just then, a trio of pixies buzzed by: Knotgrass, the flower pixie, Thistletwit, the pixie of weeds, and Flittle, the blue pixie, who always had a swarm of tiny blue butterflies hovering about her. Thistletwit pirouetted across the grass, blowing dandelion seeds as she spun, while flowers bloomed under Knotgrass' touch.

"Oh no, not _pink!" _said Flittle in regard to the blossoming roses, "Make them _blue!"_

She touched a finger to one of the roses, magically turning the pink petals blue.

"No," said Knotgrass, _"Pink!" _She then touched the flower, turning it back to its original color.

"No, _blue!"_

"Pink!"

"Blue!"

"PINK!"

"BLUE!"

Back and forth, they went, each touching the flowers again and again, changing them from blue to pink and back again, until finally they both touched a rose at the same time, turning it into a mixture of both colors.

"Oh!" Knotgrass huffed, shaking her fists at Flittle, _"Now _look at what you've done!"

"Me!? This is _your _fault!"

"Oof, I'm getting dizzy," said Thistletwit as she ceased her spinning, then upon seeing the mixed flower, "I think they look prettier that way."

"Oh, _do _shut up!" Knotgrass snapped.

Their argument was cut short when they heard a "Caw" and suddenly the black bird dove at them.

"Eep!" squealed Thistletwit, and the three raced to fly away as the crow flew at them again and again, diving at the swarm of butterflies.

"Ah! It's going to eat me!" screamed Flittle, "Get away from me!"

"No, it's alright!" Maleficent interjected, "He won't harm you!"

The crow soon caught one of the butterflies in his beak and gulped it down.

"It's eating my butterflies!" cried Flittle, "Make it stop!"

"Little bird!" Maleficent called to it in a commanding tone, "Stop _at once!"_

The crow obeyed her command and let the butterflies be, flying down to land on the back of Maleficent's hand.

"What is that thing?" asked Thistletwit as she cowered behind a rock, "It's _hideous!"_

"He is _not!" _Maleficent quipped, petting his feathers. "I found him in the woods," she explained, "He fell and broke his wing, so I helped him."

The three pixies gasped.

"The woods?" said Knotgrass, "Maleficent, You _know _you are not permitted to leave the Moors; it can be dangerous! And you know the rules; only the Fae are allowed in the Moors."

"I couldn't help it; he followed me, and besides," said Maleficent, smiling down at him, "he's my friend."

"It's a beast!" Flittle sneered, "He tried to _kill _me!"

"He did not! He was only _playing," _Maleficent retorted.

"Well I'm telling the queen!" said Flittle, and she took off with Thistletwit following behind.

"No!" shouted Maleficent, "You _can't!"_

Cradling her little friend in her hands, Maleficent chased after them.

"Ohhh dear," grumbled Knotgrass, shaking her head, "This can't end well." Then she flew after them as well.

* * *

"Ah! Quickly!" squealed Thistletwit, "She's gaining on us!"

"Your highness! Your highness!" Flittle called out as they came to the great Rowan tree.

Queen Ulla stood beneath the tree in a dress of elegant violet, her lavender colored wings folded behind her and her golden hair wrapped up in braids, eating red berries from the branches. She turned to see the two pixies frantically flying towards her.

"What is it, dearies?" she asked them once they reached her.

"Mal… Maleficent… she…" Flittle huffed, winded. She and Thistletwit then squealed and hid behind the queen as the larger Faery girl soared closer.

"STOP!" Ulla commanded, raising her palm.

Maleficent desisted and landed before her. Knotgrass quickly followed and joined her fellow pixies at her queen's side.

"What have you done now, you little beast?" she asked. She then saw the mound of black feathers in the girl's hands. Her nostrils flared as she pointed to it. "What is _that _doing here?!"

"I-I-I found him," said Maleficent.

"No creature not Faery is to enter the Moors, _ever!" _said Ulla, "You traveled beyond the borders when I have forbidden it, didn't you? You brought him in from out in the woods, didn't you?!"

"H-He hurt his wing, so I healed him," said Maleficent, holding her bird close to her chest, "Then I helped him learn to fly properly, and-"

"She taught it to fly so that it would attack us!" Flittle shrieked, "It chased us and it _ate _my beautiful butterflies, my queen! It's a _monster!"_

"That's not true!" cried Maleficent, "He's just a baby; he didn't know he was doing anything wrong!"

"Silence!" Ulla boomed, "That creature should never have been brought here, and now it tries to harm my darling pixies? It must be destroyed!"

"NO!" cried Maleficent.

She leapt into the air and began to fly away, taking her crow with her, but a beam of magic sparked from Ulla's fingertips, hitting Maleficent in the back, and she crashed to the ground. In the fall, she lost her grip and the bird slipped from her hands. Ulla fired again and again, but the little bird twisted left and right through the air with all the skill Maleficent had taught him.

Fuming, Ulla brought her hands together, forming a giant ball of white-hot energy. Just as her arms rose to hurl it at the bird, Maleficent herself threw a ball of green magic at her aunt, hitting her in the chest and knocking her onto her back, sending Ulla's own fire ball upward, setting the Rowan tree's branches aflame.

The crow flew down to Maleficent's aid, but she blew a gust of wind from her lips that sent him skyward.

"Go!" she told him, "Fly away from here, and never return!"

The little crow looked to her with heartbreak glistening in his eyes and he did as she said and flew far away.

"The queen!" the pixies gasped, pulling Ulla back up to her feet.

"Oh goodness," exclaimed Knotgrass, pointing to the flaming tree, "The Rowan!"

"I'm sorry, it was an accident," said Maleficent, raising her hands, "I'll fix it."

"No!" Ulla shouted, "You have done enough!"

The queen waved her arms and the flames extinguished. The leaves and berries and bark grew anew, and soon, the tree was as it was before.

"This is all _her _fault," declared Thistletwit.

"That girl is a devil," said Flittle.

"Indeed she is," said Ulla, turning and towering over her niece, "You are my sister's daughter, and I took you in after her death; I did so to honor her memory. But since the day you were born, you've been nothing but a thorn in my side. You disobey my laws, you bring outsiders to our land, and now you attack your aunt and queen and nearly destroy our Rowan tree. You are just like your father; you are nothing but _wicked!"_

She then raised her finger and a beam of magic hit Maleficent in the head, knocking her to the ground. When she rose again, her head felt heavier, and there was a sore pain emanating from the sides of her cranium. She touched her hands to the spots where it hurt, and her fingers wrapped around a pair of horns. She gasped, running to a nearby puddle to look into her reflection. Protruding from the sides of her skull were two tall curved black horns. She screamed and thrashed around in the grass, pulling on her horns to try and dislodge them, but they could not be removed.

"Now _all _will see you for the devil you truly are."

* * *

**This was written as part of an expansion of "_Maleficent_" that i've been formulating.**

**This is actually an adaptation of Woolverton's original script for the film, MUCH of which was eliminated from the final film, including Maleficent's horns being a curse, along with the story of what happened to her parents, and a LOT more.**

**The rest of the story that i have planned will parallel with the movie, like "We'll Set The World On Fire" parallels with Dark Knight, revealing the rest of the untold history of Maleficent and her conflict with Stefan and her own forest kingdom, all of it based on the film's original script.**

**But more of that later. **

**I was going to use this as a part of the "untold story", using it as the prologue, but I decided to post it as a stand-alone, cuz i think this is good enough on its own, and I'm honestly not sure if I'm going to follow thru on the rest of the story; too often i start a story that seems great at first but lose interest. So for now, I leave you with this.**


	2. AN: Her Wings

**Hey all.**

**Since so many of y'all seem to like this story, you'll be happy to know it's getting continued with the story i've recently posted, titled: Her Wings.**

**"Her Wings" continues telling more of Maleficent's untold history, as adapted from "Maleficent"'s original film script. In it, we'll get to meet Maleficent's father, the fearsome Redcap, and learn of his relationship with Zerena, Maleficent's mother, and how he encourages her vengeance against the ones who betrayed her. **

**Trust me, you won't wanna miss it.**

**Go check it out, and Happy reading!**


End file.
